Josh Hamilton signed a five-year, $125 million deal with the Angels over the winter. / Frank Victores, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

CINCINNATI -- There will be no apology today, no remorse, and certainly no excuses.

Los Angeles Angels center fielder Josh Hamilton won't change a thing, and still insists the Dallas-Fort Worth area is a football town, just like he said this spring, and not a baseball town.

And, if Texas Rangers fans don't like it, well, they certainly know where to find him this weekend.

"The truth is the truth,'' Hamilton tells USA TODAY Sports. "And that was the truth.

"I don't regret anything I said.''

Hamilton, who for five years helped lead the Rangers to their greatest run in franchise history - winning back-to-back American League pennants and earning three consecutive playoff berths - realizes he's about to hear the fans' reaction first-hand Friday afternoon at the Rangers' season opener.

"If they booed me when I played there,'' Hamilton says, "why wouldn't they boo me now?''

Hamilton's last act in Texas closed in the Rangers' wild-card playoff loss to Baltimore, during which he was booed vociferously.

He struck out twice in the defeat, capping a stretch of 20 punchouts in his last 46 at-bats. He even dropped a fly ball in the regular-season finale against Oakland, helping complete the Rangers' blown five-game lead with nine games left and forcing them into the wild-card game.

If that wasn't enough, he signed a five-year, $125 million contract with the rival Angels, with Rangers general manager Jon Daniels lashing out, saying he never was permitted to make a counter bid.

If any hostility was going to be soothed in time, Hamilton inflamed the animosity when he expressed his feelings this spring to a Dallas TV station.

"It's one of those things where Texas, especially Dallas, has always been a football town,'' Hamilton said. "So the good with the bad is they're supportive, but they also got a little spoiled at the same time, pretty quickly.''

Let the booing begin.

Hamilton is amused by the notion that he'll be uncomfortable, as if everyone suddenly is ignorant to his background.

Come on, he reminds you, he's a recovering drug addict. He was living in an eigh-by-eight room at an old spring-training complex just seven years ago, cleaning toilets and spray-washing stadium seats to pay for room and board. Baseball gave up on him. So did his friends.

So now, going back to Texas for the first time since his departure, he's supposed to be freaking out over an avalanche of boos ?

Hamilton, packing his duffel bag Thursday morning, has already been preparing for the reunion. He may be going home - with his house just four miles away from the Angels' team hotel - but the destination has created an odd mixture of anxiety, trepidation and curiosity.

Angels teammate C.J. Wilson, who also defected from the Rangers to the Angels a year ago, says there's no reason for Hamilton to back down from his words. Wilson criticized the Rangers' organization himself last week on a Dallas radio station for a lack of communication between the front office and players.

"He didn't say anything wrong, Texas loves football,'' Wilson told USA TODAY Sports. "If anybody tries to debate that Texas loves football, that's preposterous. It's not an insult to say it's a football town. When you call a Texan a football fan, that's not a dis, that's just saying they like football, which is true.''

Still, when the biggest star of the team departs, takes more money to play for their divisional rival, and then takes a perceived jab at their support, little wonder why Rangers' fans already are gargling to keep their larynx strong.

"I wish he had just said that Dallas is a football town, and left it like that,'' said Roy Silver, Hamilton's mentor, instrumental in resurrecting Hamilton's life and baseball career. "You can't argue with the Dallas Cowboys. They are America's Team. But it's still a great baseball state.

"I think fans are disappointed what he said, but Josh will be all right. He's used to the attention, whether it's positive or negative. He put himself in a lot of difficult situations with wrong choices in his life.

"So everything negative about Josh has already been written. This won't affect him. He's been through a lot worse than this.''

There's no need reminding Hamilton, who drove up to Silver's Clearwater, Fla., door in 2005 in a pickup, with only a bicycle, fishing poles and a duffle bag of clothes to his name. He was given room No. 4 at the old Jack Russell Stadium. His accessories were an air mattress and hangers. The shower, shared by a groundskeeper and maintenance worker, was downstairs.

If you told him back then he'd become one of the greatest, and richest stars in the game, but subjected to boos upon his return to Texas, you don't think he'd have signed up for it?

Hamilton still insists today that he wanted to stay in Texas. He always plans to make Dallas home. Yet, for the life of him, he can't figure out whether the biggest impediment in his return was Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan or Daniels.

"There's no point worrying about it now,'' Hamilton says. "It's funny, as soon as you start to get a little comfortable in life, God will take you out of that comfort zone, so you can share with other people what you've done with your life.

"So to me, you can stay in your comfort zone and miss out, or you can go out of your comfort zone and grow in your faith.

"I decided to go out of my comfort zone.''

And, all weekend long, Hamilton will be vociferously, perhaps even viciously, reminded of it.